Extraits
Chapter One Do You Really Need a Web Site? You won't find a chapter heading like this one in many books about the World Wide Web. There's supposed to be just one answer to the question, Do you really need a Web site?, so it's not worth asking. The answer is: Of course you need a Web site! Everyone can benefit from one. I have a different answer: Maybe you do, maybe you don't. You see, I'm not convinced that every business needs a Web site. I believe that many businesses are simply better off without a site. I'll give you an example of a business that can't benefit from a Web site, and explain why it can't benefit, a little later in this chapter, and I'll suggest a way that such a business may be able to change the way it operates and then benefit from a Web site. But before I do that I want to look at a few good reasons for creating a Web site. Web Sites--What Are They Good For? A Web consultant told me about a trick he uses to bring a business meeting to a standstill. When he meets his new clients, and talks about setting up their Web site, he'll ask: "What do you want to do with the Web site? What's it for?" At that point the meeting breaks up into a cacophony of voices, all suggesting this or that or the other. It turns out that most of his clients haven't thought about this issue. They know they want--need--a Web site; they just haven't considered why. Before you set up a Web site, consider what you want to do with it. Set up a Web site without figuring that out first, and you'll waste a lot of time and money, and maybe even sour on the whole idea of having a Web site. Plan what it is you want to do first, then create your site. By the way, "to make money" simply isn't a good enough answer. How do you want to make money? What are you selling? How will you attract customers? How will you take orders? How will you ship orders? You may not be able to answer some of these questions until you've finished reading this book, but you should answer them before you begin your Web Site. Here, then, is a short list of reasons to set up your Web site: * To get incredibly rich, making huge sales to millions of new customers * To promote your products, pushing sales in off-Web channels * To promote an idea, hobby, political movement, religion or other consuming passion * To take orders on-line * To sell information on-line * To distribute information about your company or organization * To distribute samples * To provide customer service and technical support * To meet new customers * To forge a stronger link between your company and your existing customers * To provide an internal communications system for your company * To make shareholders feel more like part of the company * To make money selling advertising This is by no means a comprehensive list--just a few ideas, some common, one or two not so common. Let's examine each of these reasons in turn. I'm going to be mentioning a lot of URLs--Internet addresses--in this book. You can view a Web page containing all these address links at a Web site associated with this book: http://www. poorrichard.com/book. Copy the page to your hard disk and then create a bookmark to the page stored on your hard disk, so it will be easily accessible. To Get Incredibly Rich Getting rich is a nice idea, and there are still people suggesting that the Internet is paved with gold. It's not, of course. There are people who have made money on the Internet, but probably fewer than you'd imagine. Unfortunately many Internet books and magazines have declared "successes" of Web sites that have not actually made money. HotWired, for instance (a site associated with Wired magazine), is often touted as a success story (see http://www.hotwired.com/). It's one of the Internet success stories--except that it doesn't actually make money. Why is it called a success? Generally due to its great popularity. And of course its popularity will, to some extent, increase Wired subscriptions. (But then, Wired magazine doesn't make money, either.) Internet World recently ran an article about Internet successes and even stated on the cover that the businesses were making money. The article itself said otherwise. In fact, the article clearly stated that one of the businesses wasn't breaking even and seemed to imply that a couple of the others weren't making money, either. On the other hand, there are successful Web sites, sites such as CDnow (http://www.cdnow.com/) where you can buy CDs, videos, and video games. CDnow reportedly grossed around $6 million in 1996, just two years after being launched by a couple of brothers working in their parent's basement. They're well on the way to making $16 million in 1997. If you're going to make money on the Web, though, you need to know how to promote your Web site (so you'd better read the rest of this book!). For instance, when I did a search of newsgroup messages for the word "cdnow" recently, I found 600 messages talking about this company. (I'll explain how to do this sort of search in Chapter 17.) This shows that CDnow has done a good job creating a Web site and promoting it. You can sell products on the Web, but the Web is not the ultimate get-rich-quick solution nor the lazy man's road to riches. Some companies have managed to make money on the Web ... but more have failed. To Push Off-Web Sales Even if you don't plan to sell much on-line, you can still use the Internet as a promotional tool. A Web site is just one part of a program in which you promote a product on the Internet. We'll be talking about other components: newsgroups, mailing lists, e-mail, electronic press releases and so on. Some writers and publishers have successfully used the Internet to boost sales of books in the real world. For instance, a number of computer-book publishers now make some of their books available on-line. Anyone can visit the Web site and read part of the book, or even all of it. The publishers I've spoken with say that this doesn't hurt sales; on the contrary, it appears to help them. People read part of the book, discover that the book provides the information they need, and so they order it--not necessarily on-line but perhaps through a toll-free number or even directly from a bookstore. You can promote off-line product sales on-line in a number of ways. Simply providing information about your products and letting people know where this information is available is a promotional tool. But you can take it a step further and provide coupons at your Web site, run contests and free giveaways, set up discussion groups for people using or considering using your products, and so on. Take a look, for instance, at the Coca Cola site (http://www.cocacola.com/). I've got to say I don't like the design of this site. It's corny and poorly structured (I'll explain why in Chapter 11), and I find it confusing; it's trying to be hip and cool at the expense of clarity. But what amazed me was the number of people who are visiting this site and talking with each other about Coca Cola products, Coca Cola memorabilia, trivia and so on. And anything they say becomes the property of the Coca Cola company, too. By the way, Coca Cola probably spent lots of money on this site, but any small company can run an equivalent site for around $30 to $50 a month. Setting up on-line discussion groups is quite easy these days, as you'll discover in Chapter 13. To Promote Your Ideas and Passions Many people create Web sites without any idea of making money from them. They create them to promote their ideas, their hobbies, their political or religious beliefs. Web sites can be a great way to meet people with your interests or distribute information about your ideas and beliefs. To Take Orders On-Line You can certainly take orders on-line. In most cases businesses trying to sell a product should be setting up their Web sites with the idea of both promoting the product, pushing off-line sales, and taking orders on-line. If you are promoting the product, doing your best to get the prospective client excited and interested in buying it, you might as well take the order then and there if you can. And as we'll see later, in Chapter 14, it's relatively easy to set up a system to take orders. To Sell Information On-Line You may want to sell information on-line. That is, sell access to some kind of data by selling passwords to your Web site. The most common form of "information" being sold in this manner is pornography, so if you want to get an idea of how to sell access to your Web site, spend a little time in the raunchier areas of the Web. You might also take a look at a rather more run-of-the-mill form of data being sold on the Internet, the Colorado Revised Statutes (http://crs.aescon.com/). Art Smoot has these law books in electronic form on-line. It costs $40 to gain access to all the statutes, though you can see samples for free. When you register, you are given a password that lets you get into the A Quick Word for Publishers The Internet has attracted many publishers and has led to the creation of new publishing companies, too. It seems to be a natural match. The Internet is an information superhighway, isn't it, so why not sell information on the Internet? But the reality is a little different. While it's true that there's an awful lot of information traveling around on the Internet, the vast majority is free. But at the moment it's very difficult for publishers to sell their wares across the Internet in an electronic form. Many have tried; most have failed. For instance, I recently heard the owner of a new on-line bookstore, BookAisle, talking about the progress of his company (http://www.bookaisle.com/). This bookstore sells electronic versions of paper books; some of these are actually quite well-known books that you'll find in your local bookstore. The bookstore had scores of titles--more than 80, I seem to recall. And all in all they'd sold "hundreds" of books over the previous six months, which is nothing to get excited about. Why won't people buy information in an electronic form? Well, there are a few problems. The first is that people don't like to read books on-line. It's uncomfortable and inconvenient. Try Kent's Electronic Book Bathroom Test: an electronic book is not a real book unless it can be read while sitting on the can. And if you don't like reading on the can, there's always the Couch Test, the Beach Test, the Bus Test, and so on. Another problem: selling small pieces of information is difficult because the much-vaunted micropayment system does not yet exist. Ideally it should be possible for a publisher to charge someone, say, ten cents to read an article. There is a variety of systems that might allow this sort of micropayment transaction to take place (such as DigiCash at http://www.digicash.com, and CyberCash at http://www.cybercash.com), but there's no standard system, and very few people are using any of these systems. That doesn't mean you can't make money by putting information on-line, only that you'd better come up with a better idea than simply selling it directly, or you'd better have the sort of information that people will buy (such as the Colorado Revised Statutes). Here are a couple more ideas: * Edmund's Automobile Buyer's Guides (http://www.edmunds.com/). You can buy the books in stores or view them free on-line. How does Edmund's make money? It works with Auto-by-Tel; buyers can order cars on-line, and local dealers will bid for their business. So the local dealers are, in effect, paying to allow buyers to view information for free. * ArtToday (http://www.arttodaycom/) sells clip art on-line. This is used by professional designers who don't want simply to view the pictures. They make money using this stuff so they're willing to pay. In the first case, Edmunds has found someone else to pay, someone who may benefit if visitors to the Web site read the information on-line--the car dealers. In the second case, ArtToday sells a specialized product, clip art. It's also selling selection--550,000 images--at a competitive price. So it is possible to sell information on-line. Just don't imagine you can take a paper book, convert it into electronic form, and get rich selling it on the Internet. Of course all this doesn't mean that publishers can promote their books on-line. They most certainly can. Plenty of publishers have successfully promoted paper books through the Internet. And some have found that placing electronic copies of books on-line helps to push sales of the paper books. Macmillan Computer Publishing (http://wwwm.cp.com/)--the world's largest publisher of computer books--has found that when it puts books on its Web sites, people often read pieces and then buy the paper copy. The National Academy Press (http://www.nap.edu/) has also placed many books on-line--reportedly over 1,700--and claims that the electronic versions boost the sales of the paper versions by as much as two to three times earlier levels. They've put many of their books on-line in a scanned format--that is, the pages you see on-line are pictures of the pages in the paper book, not text Web pages--making it exceedingly slow to load. This is a ridiculous way to put a book on-line, but maybe there's method in their madness. Reading one of these books is an excruciatingly slow process, like watching molasses flow in a freezer, so if readers find something of interest they'll buy the book if they really want the information. (This Web site is excruciatingly slow all around, not just when viewing Web pages ... that's an issue we'll discuss in Chapter 10.) MIT Press (http://www-mitpress.mit.edu/) is placing a few books online, and believes that doing so doubles the sales of the paper versions. That's despite the fact that these books are in text form, so they load much more quickly than those at The National Academy Press. People just don't like reading on-line, they'd much rather read snippets on-line and buy the paper if they want the entire book. To Distribute Information Many companies use Web sites as a way to distribute information about themselves that they know their users want or need. Now, I've heard it said--indeed I've read it in books giving advice about doing business on the internet--that a Web Site provides the opportunity for you to cut your printing and advertising costs. Set up a Web site and stop sending out catalogs! This is complete nonsense, of course. For the vast majority of businesses this simply isn't possible and won't be for years to come. But a Web site can provide another way for your clients and prospective clients to find information about your products and your business. And as you'll learn in this book, you can set up a Web site quite cheaply, so you can at very little cost provide the convenience of near-instant delivery of information to those of your customers who have access to the Internet. What sort of information should you distribute? * Your complete product catalog * Contact information for people who have specific questions * Job openings * Technical-support information * Order status * Your complete internal telephone directory (if you're really reckless) You may not make money directly by putting information on your Web site, but you may be providing a service that increases efficiency and makes it easier--and quicker--for potential clients to become clients and for clients to get what they need. Rather than having to field a customer-service call, you may also save money by allowing some of your customers to retrieve information on-line. A classic example of this is the Federal Express (http://www.fedex.com/) and UPS (http://www.ups.com/) shipping company services. If you want to track a package that you've shipped through one of these services, you have a couple of choices. You can call them, but that will cost them money: they'll pay for the toll-free call and they must pay an employee to talk to you. Or you can go to their Web sites and track the package by entering the number into a form. You get the same information from the same computer that the employee would use to took it up for you, but at a small fraction of the cost. (It's possible to take this a step further. Using the free WebSprite system--http://www.websprite.com/--Fedex users can have regular updates displayed on their computer desktops concerning the whereabouts of their packages. When the package arrives the shipper is immediately notified.) Pretty much any company selling software or computer hardware to the public should have a Web site, and most probably do these days (they may not use them very effectively, but that's another chapter). The benefits are tremendous for such companies. Many of their clients are already on the Internet, so by putting this information on-line they can pander to their clients' need for instant gratification. A client decides he just has to have a new program--he needs a data backup program, for instance. He can go to the company's site right away, read detailed information about what the product will do, and even download a limited-feature version and put it to work immediately. Of course, he can also order the full version right there and then, and have it in his hands the next day. It's not just the computer business, though. Maybe you have a teddy bear magazine. Prospective subscribers can connect to your site and read articles from past issues. They can view the most recent issue's table of contents, see a list of upcoming articles ... and yes, subscribe to the magazine. Oh, and the telephone directory. The best example of this I've seen so far was one shown by multimedia and Web consultant William Horton during a presentation he gave to the Boulder Chamber of Commerce. He had found Web pages owned by NASA, with maps showing office locations and a directory of internal telephone extensions. Does the public really need this stuff? As Horton pointed out, it's a great resource for terrorists. Which just goes to show that some information is not appropriate for your Web site. To Distribute Samples Commercial software publishers are taking an example from shareware publishers, prompted by the growth of the Internet. Shareware is a type of software that uses a form of "try it before you buy it" marketing technique. Shareware publishers literally give away their software. If the software is good it travels far and wide, as people pass it on to their friends and colleagues, shareware "libraries" distribute it, and so on. People who use it and like it--and decide to continue using it--are expected to register the software and pay a fee. Now many commercial software publishers are playing the same game. Microsoft, for instance, allowed people to download beta copies of Microsoft FrontPage, a Web-site creation tool. These beta copies were full-featured but were set to quit functioning on a certain date. Tens of thousands of people downloaded the product. On January 31, 1997, the beta program "timed out," leaving many users with Web sites created using FrontPage, a desire to continue using FrontPage, and no option but to go out and buy it. This system must have worked for Microsoft; at the time of writing they are doing the same with the latest version, Microsoft FrontPage 98 (http://www.microsoft.com/frontpage/). It's not just software that can be distributed this way. Anything electronic can be distributed like this, such as dip art, music, video and so on. And the product doesn't have to be electronic. Many Publishers put book chapters or entire books on-line. Magazines have their recent tables of contents and sample articles on-line. You could even use a Web site to take people's addresses and ship product samples to them. Trying to get a fantastic new shampoo or curry sauce onto the market? Offer free samples. To Provide Customer Service and Technical Support Customer service and technical support are a major expense for many companies. Having real live people answer individuals' questions can be very expensive. But most customers' questions have been asked many times before. Wouldn't it be more efficient to answer them once? Well, you probably won't shut down the technical support department, but if you can provide a good source of information for your customers and encourage them to use it, you may be able to transfer some of the load from real people to computers. The problem with the technical-support sites that I've seen, however, is that they're often badly designed--making customers do too much digging around for information--and they often don't have all the information you need. I've seen one site that leads you through a series of questions, but if your particular problem is not covered exactly by those questions, you end up getting a completely useless generic answer. There's also no e-mail address to contact a real live human being. And to add insult to injury, they have a series of questions intended to find out how you "enjoyed your technical support experience," but the questions seem to be designed to elicit only positive responses; I tried to answer the questions honestly, but never did find a question to which I could provide a negative response, or even an area in which I could enter a note explaining why I was irritated with their stupid system. The result, no doubt, was that I ended up in their statistics as a "satisfied technical-support customer." If you're going to bother doing this at all, do it right. Spend some time and effort figuring out the best way to present the information so the customer can find it quickly. And put on the site all the information you have available. By the way, an interesting example of a support site is the Microsoft Knowledge Base (http://support.microsoft.com/support/). This site allows anyone to search the same database that Microsoft's own technical-support staff use to answer call-in questions. It's usually quicker, and sometimes more effective, to use the Knowledge Base yourself. To Meet New Customers When you promote your site on the Internet, the intention is to get people to visit you. But a Web site is not a billboard. A billboard doesn't do anything for you, it just carries a message; you can create Web sites like that, but you're wasting an opportunity if you do. Bring people to your Web site and then meet them. Get their e-mail addresses; as you'll see in Chapters 12 and 13, there are ways to encourage people to divulge their e-mail addresses. You can use those addresses to keep in touch with your new customers, to send out notifications about special offers and information you think they'll find useful at your Web site, and so on. The Web is an interactive medium. Don't use it as a static one. To Forge Links With Existing Customers One of the great advantages of the Web is that it allows you to get to know your existing customers--no longer do all your customers have to be faceless statistics. Bring existing customers to your site and ask them what they like about your products. Ask them what they don't like, how they think the product should develop, whether they'd buy the product if you use the multipack bundle you've been considering, whether they like the new packaging. Give them something in return, too. Discount coupons, the names and addresses of dealers in their area, tips about using your products, promotional tie-ins with other products, and so on. To Provide an Internal Communications System The world's getting connected. In Europe, North America and Australia millions of people have Internet access, many from their laptops. Interest in the Internet is growing rapidly in Latin America, parts of Asia and elsewhere. As individuals become accustomed to on-line communications, the manner in which large companies communicate within themselves will change dramatically. For instance, it's possible for companies to set up their own private Webs, called intranets, and use them as corporate communications centers. This can be done using relatively pricey technologies, such as Windows NT's new PPTP (Point-to-Point Tunneling Protocol), which, in effect, creates a private network on top of the World Wide Web. Or it can be done cheaply using the simple technique of making a Web site private. You can do that with Microsoft FrontPage, for instance, a $150 program. Employees worldwide can reach the Web site from anywhere with a phone link. They can upload and download files, read and leave messages, join on-line chats with other employees, and read the latest company news. Whether someone's using a laptop in a hotel room in Hong Kong, a PC in a one-man office in Quito, or a Macintosh in a large office in Melbourne, all can reach the Web site and all can be on-line at the same time. To Make Shareholders Feel Part of the Company Many companies provide special services for their shareholders. Own shares in some hotel chains, and you'll get a discount on room rates. Own shares in a ferry company, and ride the ferry at a cut rate. Why not set up a site for your shareholders. It can hold all sorts of useful information: the most recent share price, of course, but also messages from the board of directors, information about special offers for shareholders and how to join the dividend-reinvestment plan, company news and so on. It had better be well-designed and interesting--avoid the typical corporate stodge. It doesn't have to be private, either. If open to the public, it can serve as an ad for your shares and a corporate information source for the public. To Make Money Selling Advertising I've left this idea to the last because, for the moment at least, there's very little chance that you'll make money selling advertising. Yes, it can be done. But it's very difficult, and the vast majority of the millions of advertising dollars companies are said to be spending on the Internet goes to just a dozen or so companies. Many of the claims are exaggerated anyway; it appears that many estimates are based on published advertising rates, whereas many advertisers are paying greatly discounted rates. Well be talking about how to sell advertising and how to buy it, too. But bear in mind that it's very difficult for a small Web site to earn advertising dollars, so don't base your entire plan on it. Do a Little Research By now you may have some ideas about what you can do for your company or organization. But I'd suggest you spend a few days cruising around on the World Wide Web. Take a good look at what other people are doing. Follow links to your heart's content--don't rush, just take your time and explore. Keep notes, because you'll probably come up with ideas as you go. Nobody knows your business better than you do, and once you understand the Web and have seen what other people have done, you'll come up with new ideas of your own. Not All Companies Need a Web Site Now, back to the question posed by this chapter's title: Do you really need a Web site? Perhaps not. There are many businesses that really won't benefit from one. Here's an example. Let's say you own a single shoe store in a small shopping center in a medium-sized town. You want to bring more people into your store so you can sell more shoes. Could you benefit from a Web site? Yes, you could. Would it be cost-effective? Almost certainly not. The problem is that few people are using the Web to find local services such as these. If I want to buy shoes, what do I do? I go to the nearest shopping mall or shopping center and visit a few stores. I might look in the Yellow Pages, though I probably wouldn't. I certainly wouldn't bother looking on the Web. So is anyone going to look for your store on the Web? No--or at least, almost nobody. Yes, you might make a sale or two, but the profit won't pay for the cost of the site. What if I'm a catalog shopper? Might I want to buy shoes through a Web catalog? Yes, I might. But you've told me you just want to bring more people into your store. Now you're talking about a new business. If you want to go into the catalog sales business, then having a Web site might be a very good idea, as long as you promote the site properly, of course. Here's an example that you may have heard of: Hot Hot Hot (http://www.hothothot.com/). This Web site was created by the owners of a hot-sauce shop in Pasadena, California. Their store was one that really couldn't benefit from a Web site. If they'd set up a Web site saying "come visit our store," I'd bet the added business wouldn't have paid the cost of the site. But they did more than that, they started what was, in effect, a new business. They decided to sell their product to people who couldn't come to the store. People can view their product catalog on-line, order on-line or by phone, and have it shipped to them. There are two things to consider here, though. First, Hot Hot Hot had a product that lent itself to being sold by mail order. If you're a hot sauce aficionado, where else can you find a store with 400 different sauces? Do you know where you can buy Spitfire Red Sauce? In Barbados, sure, but do you have it in your hometown? How about West Indies Creole or Hot as Hell Teralu Pedis? In other words, Hot Hot Hot is a specialty store selling a product with a potential market of millions of people, yet because these people are spread throughout the world, it's hard for them to obtain the product. If you want to buy these sauces, about the only practical way to do so for most people is through Hot Hot Hot. Back to the shoe store. Can you take your run-of-the-mill shoe store, put a catalog on-line, and sell the product? Almost certainly not. What do you have that I can't get at my local mall, where I can try the shoes on for size? If you want to sell on-line, you must have a reason for people to buy your product. Here are a few ideas: * Your product is very hard to find (perhaps you are selling shoes, but shoes for disabled people or people with various foot ailments). * You can sell your product dirt cheap. * You have a huge selection. * You've grouped a class of products together (things for artists, things for parachutists, things for snowboarders). * You can make it very convenient to buy from you. These are all different strategies that catalog-sales companies have used in the real, non-cyberspace world. If you can't fit one of these categories or find a similar reason for people to buy from you, you won't be able to sell on the Web any more than you would in the real world. In fact the "catalog test" might be a good one to apply to your product before trying to sell on-line. Ask yourself this: Could I sell this product through a mail-order catalog? If the answer is no, then ask yourself this: Why do I think I can sell this on the Web? I'm not saying that you won't be able to sell on the Web, but you'd better have a really good answer to that question. A few years ago, before the Internet boom--at a time when most people thought the Internet was some kind of crime syndicate--I tried selling my writing services on-line. I used CompuServe to post messages looking for companies that needed someone to write technical manuals. Did I get any business? Hell no! Why would anybody use me, somewhere across the country or across the world, when they could find a writer down the road? Later, I tried again, but I took a different tack. This time I offered something that was harder to find: I offered to create Windows Help files for software companies. And this time I found business very quickly, around $20,000 worth with two major companies. What had changed? I'd changed what I was offering from something these companies could find locally, to something that was difficult to find locally, because at that time it was hard to find people who knew how to create Windows Help files. Of course, I still had to convince potential clients that I would do what I promised, but at least I'd got far enough to talk with these companies. Let me tell you what Jason Olim told me. Olim is the co-owner of the successful CDnow Web site (http://www.cdnow.com/), which sells CDs, videos and video games--we'll look at that company later. "There's really no such thing as an Internet business," Jason told me, "Only a company doing business on the Internet." Too many people have the idea that the Internet is the path to quick riches, that all you have to do is set up a business on the Internet and away you go. But most of the work will be done off the Internet. So if you want to expand your business into another area using a Web site as a springboard, just remember that you have a lot more to do than simply create and promote a Web site. Fools and Angels Here's one little Internet myth that really annoys me: You'd better get onto the Internet quickly, or your competition will be there first. The implication is that your competition, taking advantage of the Internet, will destroy you. The truth may be the opposite. Your competition may waste valuable financial resources on a project that fails or that succeeds only after huge initial losses. Of course there are businesses that must be on the Internet. Microsoft couldn't ignore it; nor can most computer hardware and software companies. But if you're selling shoes or pet-grooming services, it's a different matter. Here's a little saying that's worth remembering: Fools rush in where angels fear to tread. The Internet myth suggests that you're a fool if you don't jump into the Internet right now. But perhaps you're a fool if you do; perhaps you're treading a path that angels quite sensibly avoid. After all, millions of dollars have already been lost on the Internet--do you have to lose your money, too? Plenty of companies have tried the Internet and failed. Some are trying again, some have just given up. Please, please, please don't be stampeded into wasting money on the Internet. Do some research, think logically about what you want to do, and plan carefully. "Local" Means "Very Few People" People in your area use the Internet, don't they? Yes. If you advertise on the Internet, won't locals find you? Well, we're back to my favorite answer: Maybe. There are a few issues here. First, how many people really use the Internet? You've probably heard the figures: 30 million, 40 million, 50 million. I've recently seen claims--in advertisements pushing Internet services--that 65 million people use the Internet. I believe this claim may be based on the idea that more is better, and it was 45 million last month, so why not 65 million this month? The funny thing is that, in 1993, when I began writing The Complete Idiot's Guide to the Internet, the number thrown about was 25 million. Most Internet users at the time were in the U.S.--there was very little Internet penetration in the rest of the world. So that would mean almost one American in ten was using the Internet. But most Americans couldn't have told you what the Internet was if you'd used thumb screws on them. Clearly the number was wrong. I'd like to tell you exactly how many people are using the Internet--even to the nearest five million would be good. But there is no consensus. All sorts of studies come up with all sorts of numbers, from five million American users to 40 million users worldwide. Here, for instance, are several estimates of U.S. Internet users published in Internet World (December 1996), taken from a variety of studies: Computer Intelligence Infocorp............................ 15 million Hoffman/Novak............................................. 16 million Intelliquest.............................................. 35 million Louis Harris.............................................. 29 million Morgan Stanley............................................ 9 million Wirthin Worldwide......................................... 42 million And a couple of estimates of worldwide use: Matrix.................................................... 26 million International Data Corp................................... 24 million Which number is correct? Take your pick, I've no idea. What I'm sure of, though, is that there are definitely not 40 million regular, knowledgeable, Internet users within the U.S. or worldwide. If you want to look at the numbers for yourself, here are a few good places to find Internet statistics: Yahoo!--Internet Statistics and Demographics http://www.yahoo.com/Computers_and_Internet/Internet/Statistics_and_Demographics/ Yahoo!--Web Statistics and Demographics http://www.yahoo.com/Computers_and_Internet/Internet/World_Wide_Web/ Statistics_and_Demographics/ O'Reilly Research http://www.ora.com/research/ MIDS Internet Demographics Survey http://www.mids.org/ Okay, so the number might be this or might be that. But whatever the number is, what does it mean? Here's an example of how Internet-usage numbers are misused. I found this statement on the front of a marketing flyer (yes, a piece of paper) for an Internet mall: The Internet is the world's largest market. Oh, sorry, I forgot the exclamation mark: The Internet is the world's largest market! What does that mean, though? Isn't the U.S. market bigger? The European market? The world soccer-fan market? Well, yes, but the Internet is a single coherent market. At least, that's what some might suggest, but of course it's not. The Internet has a lot of computer geeks, and a lot of teddy-bear enthusiasts, soccer players, skydivers, quilters, mothers, children, antique-tractor collectors, UFOlogists, astronomers, mystery writers, foot fetishists, Nazis, conservationists, Communists, Peruvian revolutionaries, Shakespearean actors, bodybuilders. ... The list could go on; well, it does go on, and on, and on. The Internet is not a single market, so even if there really are 40 million people using the Internet, if you approach the Internet as if it were a distinct block of customers, you're going to be badly disappointed. Rather, it's better to consider the Internet as a collection of thousands of niche markets. And another point to consider. Maybe there really are 40 million users, but what exactly is an Internet user? Someone who uses e-mail now and again to keep in touch with family, friends and colleagues? Someone who has an Internet connection at home but hasn't used it in a couple of months, or someone who's an Internet Relay Chat fanatic and doesn't care for the World Wide Web? Someone who spends an hour or two on-line a week, or somebody who's totally connected, on the Web every waking hour? An Internet user may be any of these things. Some of these users are of no use to you at all. Some are highly unlikely ever to come to your Web site. So we can reach two conclusions. First, 40 million or not, the actual number of users you can consider your potential customers is much, much smaller. Second, the number of active Internet users in your area is relatively small. You should assume that most people in your area are not using the Internet and that those who are using it are, in the main, infrequent users. That's not to say that the Internet cannot be used as a tool for local purposes. Many professional organizations, for instance, have their own Web sites and mailing lists. So a business that wants to market locally to these organizations' members can tie in with them. And businesses looking for the services of these people can find them. But it does mean that setting up a Web site for your local shoe store or dry-cleaning service probably isn't a great idea. They Want You to Have a Web Site I try to write my books from the point of view of a reader's advocate. The point of this book is not to persuade people to get onto the Web, it's to help them make a decision about whether it would be beneficial and, if they decide it is, to help them do so effectively. Unfortunately other advisors have other interests. There's a lot of pressure on people to get involved in this Internet thing, and many people are in the business of persuading you to set up a Web site, for a variety of reasons. Some will make money if you do. The author of one book about doing business on the Web talks of turning the World Wide Web into a "cash hose." He also explains why you must set up your Web site at an Internet mail (a subject we'll discuss in Chapter 3). This author also happens to own an Internet mall. Other writers are so caught up in the excitement of the technology and so blind to economic realities that they think it's obvious that you must be on the Web (we'll talk more about the benefits--and drawbacks--of fancy technology in Chapter 10). Writers working for the computer press are often little more than cheerleaders for technology. Yes, I'll admit it, I write for the computer press, though I try to keep my feet on the ground. For instance, one review I read stated that "the secret to a successful Web site is to create lots of links." Oh, if only it were that easy. Statements to the effect that you must make your Web site "compelling," "cool," or "exciting"--meaning: You need to use all the latest and most expensive multimedia tools--are so common, it's hard not to begin to believe them. Fortunately, they're not true. A little while ago I attended a free talk, hosted by a Web mall, which took place in the real world, in a local hotel. I'd responded to an ad I'd received--a real ad in the mail--telling me that they were going to explain the secret of getting rich on the Internet. This intrigued me--if there's some magic switch that one can flick to gain instant wealth, I'd certainly like to know what it is. It turns out that the secret to getting rich on the Internet is to sell classified ads and Web pages at a Web mall. Not any Web mall, of course, but their Web mall. One thing the speaker said really sticks in my mind, though. He talked about selling classified ad space to local businesses. He explained how one can convince a business to spend $50 to post an ad. The technique is based on convincing the business that there are millions of Internet users and that some are in the business's area, and also appealing to their egos a little: Wouldn't it be nice to be able to say your business is on the Internet! What happens when it's time to renew the classified ad? The speaker never actually said "these classified ads don't make their buyers any money." Rather, what he said was that even if the classified ads didn't make their buyers any money, buyers almost always renew, because they like the cachet of being able to say they're "on the Internet," and because many businesses regard $50 advertising checks as the sort of expense to be paid without thinking about. So don't be stampeded onto the Internet by cheerleaders or people who are going to make money from you. Take the advice of these people, and you'll probably end up paying too much and building a Web site that won't do you any good. Just Remember This ... Here's something you should remember: The Internet is a giant jobs program for computer geeks. That doesn't mean the Internet is not an important tool for many businesses; it definitely is. But when you hear advice, consider where it's coming from. There are probably many more people making a living from providing Internet services than making a living from selling non-Internet products and services on the Internet. What do I mean by Internet services? Internet service providers, Web hosting, Web-site design, Internet-related software and so on. (If you're unsure of the meaning of some of these terms, you'll find an explanation in Chapter 2). Oh, and include the Internet writers, people writing books and magazine articles about the Internet, and so on. The Internet has provided a huge boom in the computer-book business with the sales of tens of millions of Internet-related books. My geek motto is important to consider when you try to sift through the advice you've been given about putting your business on the Web. And it's important to remember the phrase when you consider what your Web site should look like. So you'll see this phrase again later in this book. So, Do You Need a Web Site? I hope by now you are ready to make a rational decision about whether or not you need to set up a Web site. Or, at least, to begin the process of research and learning that will bring you to that decision. Perhaps you're not sure if a Web site can help your business. Perhaps you think it might, but you don't want to invest huge sums in creating a Web site. Well, you don't have to. Web sites can be created very cheaply. An independent business person, for instance, can create a nice Web site in spare time and run it for $20 or $30 a month. Here's a true story: an executive at USWest approached a system administrator with the question, "if we give you half a million dollars, could you set up a Web site for us?" Many people have inflated ideas of what a Web site should cost, partly thanks to the computer press, who've touted the complicated and expensive technologies over the simple low-cost technologies. Well, this book is about how to set up your Web site without going broke. Web sites can be cheap, and I'll show you how. Copyright © 1998 Peter Kent. All rights reserved.